William Edwin "Ed" Dyess (August 9, 1916 – December 22, 1943) was an officer of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. He was captured after the Allied loss at the Battle of Bataan and endured the subsequent Bataan Death March. After a year in captivity, he escaped and spent three months on the run before being evacuated from the Philippines by a U.S. submarine. Once back in the U.S., he recounted the story of his capture and imprisonment, providing the first widely published eye-witness account of the brutality of the Death March. He returned to duty in the Army Air Forces but was killed in a training accident months later.

The 21st Pursuit Squadron was assigned to the 24th Pursuit Group which together with the 19th Bomb Group suffered heavy casualties during the opening of the war with Japan in 1941. Flying P-40 Warhawks against superior Japanese types, Dyess maintained his unit's morale in the face of staggering losses during the Battle of Bataan. When his squadron ran short of aircraft, Dyess transitioned to an infantry officer, serving in this capacity during the Battle of the Points.[2]:38–46

When the Bataan Peninsula fell to the Japanese, Dyess, as commanding officer, refused to abandon those of his squadron who could not be evacuated.[2]:65 He gave his airplane ("Kibosh") to another fighter pilot, Lieutenant I.B. "Jack" Donaldson, for last bombing run on 9 April, after which Jack was ordered to fly it to Cebu, where he crash landed.[2]:63 Dyess also supervised the evacuation of Philippine Army Colonel Carlos Romulo,[3]:25 a close friend of General Douglas MacArthur who would survive the war and would later serve as President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Dyess and others were transported by ship, the Erie Maru, to the Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao,[2]:154 arriving November 7. After two months of planning and preparation, Dyess, along with nine other American POWs, including Major Jack Hawkins, Austin Shofner, and Samuel Grashio,[2]:166 and two Filipino convicts escaped from Davao on April 4, 1943.[2]:170 It would be the only large-scale escape of Allied POWs from the Japanese in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Dyess and his group spent several weeks evading pursuit, then joined a group of guerrillas for several months.[4]:127 The group decided to split up, with seven joining organized guerrilla forces in northern Mindanao. Dyess and two others were evacuated by the U.S. Navy submarine Trout to Australia in July 1943.

Upon reaching the United States in August, he was thoroughly debriefed on his experiences as a POW by high-ranking military brass. He was ordered to recuperate, in Sept. 1943, at the Ashford General Hospital in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.[2]:11 From his hospital bed, Dyess worked with Chicago Tribune writer Charles Leavelle to tell the story of the atrocities and brutality he and his fellow POWs had experienced and witnessed while in Japanese captivity.[2]:11 The U.S. Government, however, refused to release Dyess' story for publication on the grounds that it would infuriate the Japanese and risk the death of remaining American prisoners.[2]:9 The Tribune had to wait another four and a half months for the Secretary of War to grant release of the story.[2]:11–12

Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Dyess was assigned to fly P-38 Lightnings in preparation for a return to combat. On December 22, 1943, his aircraft, P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 42-13441, of the 337th Fighter Squadron, 329d Fighter Group,[5] lost an engine caused by a fire on take-off from Grand Central Airport. Dyess had a chance to abandon his troubled aircraft but was flying over a heavily populated area and didn't want to be responsible for any civilian casualties. He remained in his stricken P-38 and died while guiding it onto a vacant lot.[6]

Almost one month after his death, the Chicago Tribune finally received permission from government censorship offices to release the deceased aviator's story on January 28, 1944. The story ran in serial form for several weeks and was picked up by over 100 American newspapers. According to Leavelle, it was the biggest story of the war since Pearl Harbor. Published in book form in 1944, The Dyess Story (later retitled Bataan Death March) became a bestseller.